Mouse problem in X

I've used Mandrake for the last two years, but always wanted to
move to Debian. I installed release 2r2 on my old box a year ago,
but couldn't get my mouse to work in an x window, so moved back to
another distro.
I've just installed Woody on my main box. Everything went fine
until I started an X session. Then... mouse pointer as
windowmanager was loading, then pointer disappeared. The desktop
menus open at random, it seems, I have a mouse pointer, but it's
not working properly.
I'm using XF86-4 with the Vesa driver for a nVideo Riva2 card. My
mouse is a standard ps2 wheelmouse.
This may be a hint as to what's gone wrong. I don't have the
message to hand, I'm having to use windoze to send this. After
starting X for the first time this was in the information on tty2.
Generic mouse loaded
Configured mouse loaded.
So it seems that I have two mice in my config file. I'm guessing
that that's causing a conflict.
I'm a Debian newbie and don't have a great deal of experience with
working with console apps. I don't know which editor would be best
for me to read and edit my xf86-4 config file.
Could anyone give me advise? In other Debian-based distros (storm
and Corel) I've had no mouse problems. Could the two entries be
the cause? And if I need to edit config files, which is the best
console editor to use? I have even installed debian jr so I should
have a good selection, but haven't a clue what is included in a
standard debian installation and which is best for somebody who
knows Linux to some extent but has always worked in a windowed
environment.